Speaking to Belgian newspaper HLN, Hazard said: “If I’m now asked one coach with whom I want to work again, then I say Mourinho.”

“I do not regret many things in my career, but that I have not been able to work with Mourinho at Chelsea anymore [is one].

“We had a team to get a lot of prizes, but we just ended up in a negative spiral.”

Again, it would have been so easy for Hazard to throw Mourinho under the bus he loves to park.

He no doubt knows the wild speculation such comments are could spark in some areas of the media.

There’s no chance of Hazard signing for Mourinho’s Man United anytime soon, but he felt it was right not to hold Mourinho solely accountable for the sticky end to their partnership, and so he spoke out publicly.

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